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Michael Fisher

{{Short description|English physicist (1931–2021)}}

{{About|the British theoretical physicist|other people named Michael Fisher}}

{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}

{{Infobox scientist

| image =

| image_size = 180px

|birth_name = Michael Ellis Fisher

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1931|9|3}}

| birth_place =Fyzabad, Colony of Trinidad and Tobago

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2021|11|26|1931|9|3}}{{cite web | last=Suplee | first=Anne | title=Michael E. Fisher, 1931-2021 | website=UMD Physics | date=April 29, 2020 | url=https://umdphysics.umd.edu/about-us/news/department-news/1752-fisher.html#!Fisher_2 | access-date=December 1, 2021}}

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| nationality = British

| field = Statistical physics

| work_institution = King's College London
Cornell University
University of Maryland, College Park

| alma_mater = King's College London

| doctoral_advisor = Donald MacCrimmon MacKay

| doctoral_students = {{plainlist|1=

}}

| known_for = Theory of phase transitions
FKT algorithm

| prizes = Irving Langmuir Award (1971)
Wolf Prize (1980)
Boltzmann Medal (1983)
NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing (1983)
Lars Onsager Prize (1995)
Royal Medal (2005)
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2009)

}}

Michael Ellis Fisher (3 September 1931 – 26 November 2021) was an English physicist, as well as chemist and mathematician, known for his many seminal contributions

to statistical physics, including but not restricted to the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena. He was the Horace White Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics at Cornell University. Later he moved to the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, where he was University System of Maryland Regents Professor, a Distinguished University Professor and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.

Academic background

Michael E. Fisher received his BSc from King's College London in 1951, where he also earned a PhD in physics in 1957, studying analogue computing under Donald MacCrimmon MacKay.{{cite journal |last1=Domb |first1=Cyril |title=Michael Fisher at King's College London |journal=Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications |date=15 September 1991 |volume=177 |issue=1 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1016/0378-4371(91)90127-X |bibcode=1991PhyA..177....1D |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/037843719190127X |language=en |issn=0378-4371}} He was appointed to the faculty as a lecturer the following year, becoming a full professor in 1965.

In 1966 he moved to Cornell University where he became professor of chemistry, physics, and mathematics, chairing the chemistry department from 1975 to 1978. In 1971, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1973, he and Jack Kiefer were the first two Cornell faculty elected as Horace White Professors.[http://hdl.handle.net/1813/24703 2 Professors Are Named To Horace White Chairs], Cornell Chronicle, vol. 4, no. 19, 22 February 1973. Page 3. Retrieved 30 May 2011. Fisher was elected Secretary of the Cornell University Senate. In 1983, he was elected a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences, chemistry section, as he had remained a citizen of the United Kingdom.{{Cite web |title=Michael E. Fisher |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/55733.html |access-date=2022-03-15 |website=www.nasonline.org}}{{cite news | title=Faculty Notes | work=Cornell Arts & Sciences Newsletter | publisher=Cornell University | date=Fall 1983 | page=7}}

Since 1987 he was at the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, which is part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. He retired in 2012.

Fisher lived in Ithaca, N.Y., and subsequently in Maryland, with his wife Sorrel. They had four children. Two of them are also theoretical physicists: Daniel S. Fisher is professor of Applied Physics at Stanford,{{cite web|url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/app-physics/faculty.html#FisherD|title=Stanford University Department of Applied Physics|access-date=13 September 2016}} while Matthew P. A. Fisher is professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.[http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/mpaf KITP at UCSB]

Wolf Prize

Fisher together with Kenneth G. Wilson and Leo Kadanoff won the Wolf Prize in 1980. The prize was awarded with the following comment:{{cite web|url=http://www.wolffund.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=winners&cs=375|title=קנת ג' ווילסון (Kenneth G. Wilson)|last=Simply-Smart|access-date=13 September 2016}}"Professor Michael E. Fisher has been an extraordinarily productive scientist, and one still at the height of his powers and creativity. Fisher's major contributions have been in equilibrium statistical mechanics, and have spanned the full range of that subject. He was mainly responsible for bringing together, and teaching a common language to chemists and physicists working on diverse problems of phase transitions."

Boltzmann Medal

In 1983, Fisher was awarded the Boltzmann Medal "for his many illuminating contributions to phase transitions and critical phenomena during the past 25 years"{{cite web|url=http://proj1.sinica.edu.tw/~statphys/links/IUPAP_C3/Boltz_Award/BA1983.html|title=The Boltzmann Award|access-date=13 September 2016}}

Lars Onsager Prize

Fisher won the Lars Onsager Prize in 1995 "for his numerous and seminal contributions to statistical mechanics, including but not restricted to the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena, scaling laws, critical exponents, finite size effects, and the application of the renormalization group to many of the above problems" (official laudatio).

Award and honours

  • Guggenheim Fellowship (1970)
  • Irving Langmuir Prize of the American Physical Society (1971)
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1979){{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter F|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterF.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=16 April 2011}}
  • Guthrie Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics (1980){{cite news | title=Faculty Notes | work=Cornell Arts & Sciences Newsletter | publisher=Cornell University | date=February 1980 | page=7}}
  • Wolf Prize (1980)
  • Michelson–Morley Award from Case Western Reserve University (1982){{cite news | title=Faculty Notes | work=Cornell Arts & Sciences Newsletter | publisher=Cornell University | date=Fall 1982 | page=7}}
  • Boltzmann Medal of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (1983)
  • Foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1983)
  • NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing of the National Academy of Sciences (1983){{cite web|title=NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing |url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_scirev |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=27 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318130922/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_scirev |archive-date=18 March 2011 }}
  • Member of the American Philosophical Society (1993){{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Michael+E.+Fisher&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-03-15 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}
  • Lars Onsager Prize of American Physical Society (1995)
  • Royal Medal in physics (2005):{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/michael-e-fisher-11436/|title=Michael E Fisher|access-date=13 September 2016}}
  • 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences (co-winner with Richard Zare);{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qh8qnxbe8w |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/8Qh8qnxbe8w |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|title=Richard N. Zare and Michael E. Fisher, 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge in Basic Sciences|last=BBVA Foundation|date=15 April 2010|publisher=YouTube|access-date=13 September 2016}}{{cbignore}} see[http://www.ipst.umd.edu/aboutus/files/epn2011421p14.pdf Interview with M.E. Fisher by the Spanish Physical Society]
  • 2015 Rudranath Capildeo Prize for Applied Sciences and Technology-Gold, awarded by the Trinidad and Tobago's National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST){{cite web|url=http://www.ipst.umd.edu/news/|title=Institute for Physical Science and Technology|access-date=13 September 2016}}

References

{{reflist}}

Sources

  • N. David Mermin, "My Life with Fisher", J. Stat. Phys. 110, 467–473 (2003); [https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0211382 see also].

External links

  • [http://www.glue.umd.edu/~xpectnil/ Homepage at University of Maryland]
  • [http://www.wolffund.org.il/full.asp?id=105 Wolf prize citation]
  • [http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~statphys/links/IUPAP_C3/Boltz_Award/BA1983.html Boltzmann medal citation]
  • [http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Michael%20E%2E%20Fisher&year=1995 Lars Onsager prize citation]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20120615121630/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2009/ciencias.jsp BBVA award citation]
  • {{MathGenealogy|id=43998}}

{{Wolf Prize in Physics}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Michael}}

Category:1931 births

Category:2021 deaths

Category:Alumni of King's College London

Category:Fellows of King's College London

Category:Academics of King's College London

Category:Cornell University faculty

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:British physicists

Category:Wolf Prize in Physics laureates

Category:University of Maryland, College Park faculty

Category:Royal Medal winners

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

Category:People from Siparia region

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:Recipients of the Boltzmann Medal